METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING OPTICAL REFLECTIONS IN AN OPTICAL NETWORK

摘要

A method and apparatus for detecting optical reflections in an optical network to locate and assess a problem in the optical network without dispatching multiple technicians with different skill sets and equipment. Optical transport components are configured to transmit optical signals. Supervisory components are configured to supervise the optical transport components. An optical reflection detector is configured: (i) to sense reflections of the transmitted optical signals via the optical transport components and (ii) to provide information about the reflections to the supervisory components. The supervisory components may use the information about the reflections to determine the locations and power values of the reflections. The information about the reflections may be stored in a database and tracked over a length of time. The supervisory components may issue an alarm when a metric associated with reflections exceeds a threshold value.